theodore krausgh



W. T. KRAUSCH.

- Locomotive. No. 61,546.

Pateoted Jan. 29, I867.

MEfias. PNOTO-UTHOGRAPMER, WASHINGTON. o. c.

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C; W. THEODORE 'KRAUSGH, O'F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

Lam Patent No. 61,546, and January '29, 1 867.

IMPROVED METHOD OF INCREASING TRACTION IN LOCOMOTIVES.

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TO ALL wnonir MAY con'cnnn:

Be it known that I, 0 W. THEODORE KRA USCH, of Philadelphia,in thecounty of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a newand improved Mode of Increasing the Traction of Locomotive and otherDraught Engines; and I do hereby declare that the-following is a fulland'exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is aside elevation of a locomotive-engine having a lever applied to it forincreasing the tractive force.

Figure2 is a side elevation ofa locomotive, showing'a mode of increasingits tractive force by the application of steam toa coupling-lever.

Figure 3 is a longitudinal section taken vertically through the centreof fig. 2.

Similar letters of reference indicate cor'respondingparts in the severalfigures.

The object of my invention is to obviatethenecessity hitherto existingof constructing very heavy locomotives for drawing trains-of cars onrailroads, by means'of a contrivance which will cause the weight of theload to be drawn to operate with greater or less pressure upon thedriving-wheels of the locomotive, and thus' admit of the starting anddrawing of very heavy loads by means of a comparativelylight locomotive.Locomotive engines, as well as engines for drawing loads on commonroads, have hitherto been made very large and heavy in orderrto obtainthe vnecessary amount of adhesion of the driving-wheels upon the railsor roads to move heavy loads; and inmany'instances, with the heaviestengines, it is found necessary to sand the rails in ascending grades forthe purpose of: obtaining such adhesion of the wheels. I obviate theseobjections by my invention and obtain a great saving in power as well asin rolling stock by the following invention. v

To enable others skilled in the art to understand my invention, I willdescribe several modes of'carrying it into efiect. i I

The drawings represent two modes of. effecting the object herein named,applied to a driving engine, but it will be obvious'from the followingdescription that the invention is applicable to locomotive engines ofany of the well-known forms for drawing loads on railroads or uponcommon roads. The principle of my invention consists in connectingthe'carriage upon which an engine is applied for drawing a load to theload to be drawn,

by means of a contrivance which will transfer some of the weight of theload upon the engine carriage or loco motive, and thus increase theadhesion of the driving-wheels so that they shall not slip. In fig, I, Arepresents the truck-frame, which has the axles of the driving-wheels 13applied to it in any suitable manner; and C is a platform orengine-frame, which is suitably Ihounted upon the truck-frame by meansof springs aa, so as to have a downward elastic support.- The .boiler Dand its'appendages are mounted in any-suitable manner upon the platformG; and the driving-gear b b are applied so as not to be aifected by themovement of this platform C, by supporting the driving-gear liuponbearings, which are mounted upon the frame A, as shown' in thedrawings. Near one end of the platform C are erected two standards, d d,which support a roller, e. This roller is the fulcrum for a lever, G,the short arm of which is pivoted to a fixed point, 9, on the platformby means of a link, g, and the long arm is provided on its end withmeans for coupling it to the draw-headof a car or tender" This lever G-is allowed to move in a direction with its length, but it is so arrangedthat in, order to do so it will bring the weight of the front end of'the car to be drawn upon the platform 0, and consequently upon thedriving-wheels B, so as to increase their adhesion upon the rails. Thismotion of the lever-G is efiected by starting the engine, and inproportion to the amount of load to be drawn or the resistance to beovercome, so will the pressure upon the engin e frame be increased ordiminished. In figs. 2 and 3 I have rcpresented a modification of theplan of increasing adhesion of the driving-wheels upon the rails, whichconsists in having a piston working in a strong steam cylinder, h, toact upon one arm of a lever, S, the other arm of which is suitablyconnected to a car or tender. This lever B has its fulcrum upon theframe of the locomotive, and it is caused to act by the admission ofsteam into the cylinder '71- This cylinder it may be supported upon thever= tical boiler, as shown in figs. 2 and 3, or upon a frame which iserected upon the platform of the engine in any suitable manner, andsteam may be admitted to said cylinder above its piston through'a pipe,1', leading from the boiler, andhaving a cock appliedto it, so that theengineman can operate the lever at will, and increase or diminish thepressure upon the engine-frame as 'he may desire. In the case firstdescribed, where I employ a lever which is caused to move over a fulcrumin starting the engine, the engineer cannot regulate the. amount ofpressure which is brought to bear upon the engine-frame, except byadjusting the length of the link 9, whenthe engine is not drawing, butin the latter case above described, where steam is employed, theengineer can increase or diminish the downward pressure at pleasurewhile the train is at rest orin motion. Other plans than those abovedescribed may be employed for effecting the same result; for instance, alever or arm may be secured rigidly to the engine-frame, at somesuitable point on the rear partmf the same, and connected to one end ofan engine-tender or'car, in such manner that when the engine starts aportion of the weight of the car or tender will be caused to pressdownward upon said arm, employing for this purpose inclined planes orequiv-alent devices. 01' in the case of city railroad cars which aredrawn by a dummy engine, one end-of the car may be supported upon saidengine, or the engine may be arranged between two cers, so that one endof each car will be supported upon the engine-frame. Instead ofemploying steam as amcans for bringing the weight of one end of a car ottender to press upon the engineframe, a scremmaybe employed to -act uponone end of the lever B, instead of the steam piston above described. Inall of these plans above mentioned, the forward movement ofthelocomotive in starting will cause a portion of the Weight of the loadto be drawn to press with greater or less force upon the engine-frameand increase the adhesion of the wheels and the tractivepowr of thelocomotive, thus rendering-it unnecessary to increase the Weight of thelocomotive by enlarging and militiplying its parts to efl'ect thisobject; The same principle can be applied in stopping a train of cars.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire tosecure byLetters Patent, is--..

1. The means substantially as herein described of increasing adhesion ofdriving-wheels of locomotive engines upon their rails, consisting intransferring aportion of the weight of a car or cngine-tender'to thelocomotive-frame by the act of starting the locomotive, substantially asdescribed. i

2. The employment of steam or other power in conjunction with acoupling--lever S, or its equivalent, for the purpose of enabling theengineer to increase or diminish the weight upon the engine-frame atpleasure, substantially as described.

C. W. THEODORE KRAUSCH.

Witnesses:

JULIUS Wom n, 0. Timon. KnLL.

